Carnarvon Gorge July 11th - 21st 2021

Leaving Thallon on Saturday 10th July. Wendy left yesterday for St George, she will have a coffee with Griff and her traveling friend Martina and possibly stay the night in St George.

I'm not sure what Christine is doing, possibly going to Mungindi and waiting for her friend Sue Mallow.

I'll probably bypass St George as I've been there before.

We meet up again at Surat

When I arrived, a departing camper pointed me to the spot she left and said, its a great spot and there is a few logs left there for a fire.

I went the the loo and while away from my spot this guy loads the 3 logs onto his caravan, on seeing him, I say "excuse me but those logs were given to me" he ignores me 3 times so I go get my phone and pretend to video him leaving. He stops and says "I didn't here you" and proceeds to undo the logs and throw them to the side of his van. Look how many logs he has under my 3 that he stole.

We walk into town and back along the river.

An old movie theatre.

 

Griff has slippery hair and plenty of it! so I mad her a Giggle beanie that covers her ears and can be tied under her neck, no cone head now....

This is Wendy's dads bbq rack, he is such a clever man. This one is held up by a spike that is pushed into the ground, cooked the snags perfectly.

Griff spoils us with scones, jam and Chantilly cream.

I look so grumpy, but I'm not....just my normal focus face.

Wendy is the artist among us, 

The locals  

I loved the art work on the walls of the museum. Taking note on how he painted the leaves.

We moved on to the Roma Gun Club and stayed 3 nights 

The moon and Venus together, 

Morning from my bed. Another sunrise, this ones Saturday morning 17th July.

What a surprise at Injune showground, Robyn and Sean Brennan from Lemon Tree Passage, Old dear friends from our St John Ambulance days of 20 years ago.

  

They still look loved up!

Love my crumbed lamb cutlet's

We have landed into a mouse plague, we've come this far without mice but now Wendy caught one and Griff, I mean Angus caught one also.

Martina's dog Narla with another of Griff's catches

A Puffing Billy

3 live mice in a bucket

At last, we are on our way to Carnarvon Gorge, Monday 19 July 

From Right to left, Christine , Sue Mallo, Sally Toms, Wendy Healy, me and Wendy Gower. Most of these girls are fit and ready for the long hike thru the gorge not wanting to miss a thing.

It's 20 plus days since I had my Covid shot, this horrible feeling of tiredness. I'm in VF most of the time, breathless on movement, very fatigued and have headaches. I can't join the girls for exploring around the campground, I just can't do it!

The next day I tried walking around the camp area, I had to stop and sit to get my breath every few meters and sit myself down to get catch my breath.

Sandstone Park, this is where Joanne, Griff and Martina stayed, it's on top of the plateau with spectacular 360deg outlook. There were quite a few mice here too. I have to say the sky's would have been awesome.

Feeling so sick, I stayed away from everybody, I wasn't sure what was wrong with me. 

I did drive up to Sandstone and visit the girls there.

On the third day I tried walking the track to the Gorge. All the girls had left for the hike already, I managed to see the information centre and just a little bit of the track before giving up and returning to my car. I left that day feeling so despondent. 

Carnarvon Gorge June 28th - July 10th 2021

I left home 9am on the 28 June, the day was a good one for travelling, a little bit wet near the coast. after a few stops I arrived at Narrabri about 4.30pm.

On the 29th I had the suture out on my shoulder in a Narrabri medical centre, the weather is warm.

On the 30th I had my first covid shot (Astra Zeneca). The rain arrived overnight, not heavy but enough to make plenty of slosh. 

On the 1st July I am ready to take off and catch up with Wendy Gower who is at Lightning Ridge till tomorrow. I have the option to stay another night here at the showground and leave early in the morning or go now, its about lunch time, but my thoughts are, where would I camp tonight and would the areas be to muddy. But anyway Wendy said to wait the day out as she felt unwell the day following her injection. I'm waiting for any side effects before I hit the road. Seems to be no problem yet.

I see a little bit of sunshine peeping through the clouds though its still sprinkling. I think it will only get better as the day passes as the cloud bank is traveling west to east.

I felt pretty bad about Griff, she was expecting to meet up with Wendy at Coonabarabran around the 12th July but Wendy has bolted to get nearer to the border and away from the covid outbreak. Anyway I offered to wait for Griff, thinking she might do the same and leave earlier but haven't heard from her at all, so expect she is OK and doing her thing. I think Griff will be traveling with another lady camper anyway, so no need for me to worry. 

Wendy doesn't have a border pass yet, she has to wait till the 5th July, thinking its because her home address is Sydney and its in lock down. She'd gotten away from Sydney before the lock down.

I have my border pass and can pass up until the 11 July.

We should meet up at Goodooga tomorrow, I'll give Lightning ridge a wide birth. Wendy asked at the police station if its tar road to Goodooga and the say yes all good. Its going to be a good long drive tomorrow.

Stopped at Walgett for petrol, didn't really like it there.

Arrived at Goodooga around lunch time and in a few short minutes another van pulls up. I was surprised to see it was Christine Brennan-Fajks.

Passing Lightning Ridge

We made a pretty good first fire.

We did some exploring of the town

Wendy and Christine

Wendy's motor home behind her and Chris's in the background. 

Who's a happy girl then!

The Bore Baths were fantastic, especially after dark before bed, such a good sleep after it.

A trucking station for water cartage, works well for hot showers and a car wash

A nearby reservoir 

Wendy tackles a damper mix.

Looking good

We used hot bricks in Wendy's camp oven 

30 minutes later...

Viola.......perfect with lashings of butter and honey

On another walk, and we find 

the old Goodooga Golf Club

After 4 days of relaxing we're off again, thru Hebel, onto Dirranbandi and across to Thallon.

. 

We stayed 1 night at Dirranbandi but checked out the town first, shopped at the local store for a few supplies before heading back out of town to the free camp by the river.

This guy was an aboriginal long-distance runner who won medals, notice he has no runners.

The craftsman's name inscribed on the side of the statue.

We found the perfect spot to camp, even had our own shelter and fire pit, we tied a tarp at one end of the structure to stop the cold breeze.  

Put another log on the fire they said! But Wendy! its a pretty big log you've got there. 

Thallon for 3 nights, power for 2 nights @ $5.50 per night.

The drop bear in the pub

Stumpy tail red cattle dog, just check out the tail colours. He is very cute and clever; he races for the kitchen door every time it opens. 

And here is his owner, the publican

We did a longer walk to find murals, found the old rail bridge beside the new one.

 

and on the pillions, we did find the murals 

This is the guy who took the photo of the birds, the painter of the silo's copied them.